According to the Standards for Approximate Judgment of Phonetic Trademarks and Chinese Character Trademarks previously promulgated by the Trademark Office, there are mainly the following judgment methods.
1. The trademarks of Chinese characters and pinyin are not similar to each other.
Pinyin mainly promotes the coincidence of phonetic notation for Chinese characters. Different phonetic notation corresponds to different Chinese characters, so the pinyin corresponding to Chinese characters does not conflict with each other when applying for trademarks, and can be registered. For example, the application for "lixiang" in the earlier application and the application for "Ideal" in the later application will not cause confusion on the same commodity, and they can be approved and registered at the same time (lixiang has various phonetic symbols, such as "leaving home", etc.).
2. Trademarks of different Chinese characters with the same pinyin are not mutually approximate
Chinese character trademarks and pinyin trademarks are not mutually exclusive for registration. Therefore, when the corresponding Chinese characters are different when the pinyin is the same, since Chinese characters are generally recognized as the subject identification part, different Chinese characters with the same pinyin trademarks are not mutually exclusive, and they can be registered if they are not mutually approximate. As mentioned above, "lixiang Ideal" and "lixiang Leaving Home", "Benna banana" and "banana Banana" will not cause confusion when registered on the same commodity, so they can be registered at the same time.
3. Chinese character trademarks and trademarks marked with the same Chinese character and pinyin are similar to each other.
Because Chinese characters are the main identification parts of trademarks, if a single Chinese character trademark and the same Chinese character trademark with the corresponding pinyin trademark * * * appear together, because the Chinese character trademarks are the same, they are identical or similar trademarks, and are easily mistaken by the general public as serial trademarks and come from the same subject, so they will not be registered. "lixiang Ideal" and "Leaving Home" trademarks mentioned above.
In addition, it is worth noting that if the trademarks of Chinese characters are the same, but the pinyin of the latter trademark is different, they are also the same or similar trademarks, such as "leaving home" and "ideal lixian".
4. Pinyin trademarks and similar Pinyin trademarks are judged to be similar
When Pinyin trademarks appear alone, the prominent part is reflected in the combination of the shapes and letters of the trademarks or the visual effect of the combination. Therefore, when both pinyin trademarks similar to pinyin trademarks appear, if they are basically the same in letter composition, combination, sequencing and visual effect, they are judged as similar trademarks, and those who apply later will not be registered. As mentioned above, "lixian" and "lixiang" (or lixia) are judged as approximate trademarks, which are easily regarded as goods provided by the same entity, so the latter is not registered.
it should also be noted that when a single pinyin trademark and an approximate English trademark * * * appear together, it will also be judged as approximate. If the above example is still taken, the trademarks of "lixian" and "lixia" are similar, and the former has been applied for, but the latter will not be registered.
5. English trademarks are judged to be similar only when the corresponding Chinese characters are translated.
The prominent part of English trademarks is pronunciation or letter combination, so they are usually not similar except when the meanings of English trademarks and Chinese trademarks are in one-to-one correspondence. For example, when the famous "jadon" and "Jordan" are in one-to-one correspondence, they are similar. For example, panda and panda are registered on the same kind of goods, they are also judged to be similar and will not be approved for registration.
through the above analysis and enumeration, it can be found that trademarks with different pinyin are not similar and can be registered at the same time. Chinese characters or Chinese characters similar to Chinese characters are judged to be approximate, and pinyin similar to pinyin is judged to be approximate. A foreign trademark is judged to be approximate only when it forms a corresponding meaning with Chinese characters, otherwise it is not approximate.
Therefore, the enlightenment to us is that in order to prevent the defects of pinyin trademarks, it is important to remember to register Chinese trademarks at the same time when registering pinyin trademarks.